Water Main Break Leads to Sinkhole in Baldwin Hills Area

Share this:

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

A water main break in the Baldwin Hills area early Monday appears to have caused a sinkhole, according to the Los Angeles Department of Power.

The water main break was reported about 3:15 a.m. in the area of 3500 West Boulevard, said Terry Schinder of the DWP.

About 20 customers have been affected and are without water, Schinder said.

Officials said the water will remain shut off through 5 p.m. Monday.

"The sinkhole resulted from a 6-inch main break, it was reported at about 4 a.m. today,"Mark Ching, an emergency communications coordinator with the DWP, told KTLA. "Unfortunately sometimes leaks are small and this one was just a little bigger."

Mud was sent flowing through the neighborhood over a five-block radius.

Los Angeles Police officials were also at the scene.

The pipe that broke Monday was installed in 1940 and had been slated to be replaced, the DWP reported.